Ripple Donates $50 Million To Top Universities To Encourage Adoption Of Blockchain Technology

San Francisco-based startup Ripple is allocating millions of dollars to several top universities to encourage the adoption of blockchain technology.

On Monday, the company announced its partnership with 17 schools including MIT, the University of North Carolina and the University of Pennsylvania. With its “University Blockchain Research Initiative” program, Ripple will be donating roughly $50 million for blockchain research and development, cryptocurrency as well as digital payments.

The company clarified that the donations would be made in dollars and not in cryptocurrency.

“As globalization increases, so does the demand for technological solutions and talent to solve the world’s hardest financial problems, such as retail remittances,” Eric van Miltenburg, Ripple’s SVP of business operations, said.

The company said the program was launched partly due to the demand for jobs. There were more than 4,500 job openings related to “blockchain” or “cryptocurrency” posted on LinkedIn last year.